iRunFar: You had another great race out there. Early on you were running behind the leaders, just a little. Was that your plan?

Hernando: Well, the plan was to stay low key at the beginning, thinking the race barely started at El Reventón. [Sage] Canaday was not here, who was the one setting the pace years before, neither was Kilian [Jornet] who was the pace referent. We all knew following him we were running on a good pace, and the idea was that, taking it easy. Anyway it was a very constant pace, very good, and the truth is that until El Reventón I ran comfortable and not thinking much.

iRunFar: You certainly made an effort after that. By El Roque you had five minutes. Did you make a real push or you just gradually pick up the pace?

Hernando: I ran relatively constant in the beginning, unlike other years, the pace was constant, so I think we all arrived pretty much stronger. In other editions there were more attacks, and also on the high part from Pico de las Nieves until El Roque it was not as hot as other years, though. I made an effort to begin the downhill with a little bit of advantage, but I went relatively comfortable and maybe better than other years.

iRunFar: Once you started the downhill you were so much faster than everybody else. Were you very confident going at the downhill? Was that were you really planned to attack?

Hernando: I was feeling fine, and had the reference that they were not so far behind me on the highest point of the race. They were relatively close, and there was still a lot of race to run. Also, I did not know half of the rivals yesterday. I have never ran with them. I did not know how they were at downhills, so I couldn’t relax at all and, on the contrary, I tried to come down as fast as I could on the first part of the downhill to have time reference on El Time, and trying to take the biggest time advantage I could, so that I would be able to relax and come down a little bit easier. On the first half, I did try to run my 100%.

iRunFar: Why do you think you’re such a good downhiller? Because you also have shown it last year descending [at Transvuclania], and at Zegama last year you were a very strong descender. Why are you so good on the downhills?

Hernando: If someone told me five years ago I was going to be a good downhiller, I wouldn’t have believed it. In fact, when I started with this I used to like vertical races so I didn’t have to run down. But, well, I’ve made the idea that you also have to go down well in order to succeed in races, and I’ve done many more trainings, many more meters of downhill. Every time I’m adding meters of downhill training. What I also do in trainings, besides doing specific workouts, it’s not to relax in downhills, always trying to go down focused, and a little frantic, and accepting the idea than you can also train for downhills.

iRunFar: Do you train just to be good on the very long downhills or do you also have speed sessions on descents?

Hernando: Where I live, in winter, there’s snow over 1,300 meters normally, and we live at 900 meters. So we can train doing ups and downs, but we can’t make too long uphills or downhills, so we do speed workouts, and try to do all the downhills. If we do many uphills, we try to do the downhills on different ways. In some trainings, we try to do the downhills series as fast as we do the uphill series.

iRunFar: You also showed some speed on the flats yesterday, in Los Llanos, you kept looking at your watch. Did you know the record?

Hernando: Here at Tazacorte, at the aid station, they told me I might be going on record pace and to be honest, I didn’t really care about the record, the idea was to just win. But well, until I got to the last part in Los Llanos, I went easy on this last uphill, just to make sure I didn’t blow up at the middle of the uphill and to avoid anything unexpected. So I did the uphill, and when I got to the last flat part in Los Llanos I looked at my watch, saw the first arch, and pushed with everything I got because I was not afraid anymore of pushing at that point.

iRunFar: Beating Kilian’s record, running faster than last year, is this your best trail performance?

Hernando: I think yesterday time can be lowered, and if this last two years we didn’t do this time, I think it was because temperature yesterday was better, there was even a breeze that cooled your body, and also matched than the pace was constant, and all the conditions were given to go fast, but I think it’s a record that can be broken, and anyway, I’ll keep other performances as my best.

iRunFar: Do you think you will be back next year giving it another try for the record?

Hernando: Man, I love to come here, and, of course, I would love to come back, but I think I’ll do it with the idea of trying to win and not thinking about the record. I will go to El Reventón trying to catch up the pace of the other people.

iRunFar: What races are up next to you?

Hernando: Now on May, May 30th, I am going to Annecy [for the IAU Trail World Championships]. Then I have lots of names and races in mind, but still haven’t planned the whole calendar. The only confirmed race is Annecy on the 30th.

iRunFar: Your performance here must give you some confidence that you are fit going into Annecy.

Hernando: Yes, starting the season like this with a race like yesterday’s gives confidence for the whole season, but, well, every race is different, in every race you can find yourself in good shape and things can go wrong, but anyway, it’s way better to start the season like yesterday. It gives confidence.

iRunFar: Congratulations on your great run yesterday and good luck in Annecy.